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This little guy, sometimes known as the ‘kissing bug’ (because it likes to eat your face), feeds off fresh blood and is responsible for spreading Trypanosoma cruzii–which causes Chagas disease.

To this charming CV, Claudio Lazzari and colleagues at the Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l’Insecte in Tours have just added learning ability. Surprisingly, according to F1000 Member Martin Giurfa in his evaluation, nobody had looked at this bug’s ability to learn and memorize.

Lazzari’s group were able to teach the bugs to associate a particular odour–lactic acid–with a meal of warm blood, to such an extent that the bugs strongly preferred a lactic acid-laden section of a maze^{10.1242/jeb.056697}. Equally, the bugs could be trained to avoid lactic acid.

So these insects can learn. Which on the face of it is scary, but it might mean that maybe they could be taught, in the wild (using artificial lures and traps), to avoid humans.